Post Office scandal: Barnet postmasters want prosecutions

The Patel family, who ran the Whetstone High Road Post Office in Barnet for more than 25 years, said they paid money that should have gone into their pensions to make up false losses generated by Fujitsu's faulty Horizon IT system and avoid prosecution.

They say staff were pressured into admitted stealing in a "bullying" atmosphere - and that like so many others they were told they were the only ones this was happening to.

The family say they filed a claim more than three years ago but are still waiting for compensation.

“It’s taking too long,” said Jaymin, who ran the Post Office with his brother Kanesh and wife Jayshree.

“Let’s hope they speed it up now. It’s time to pay.”

The rally was held the morning after former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells announced she would return her CBE.

“I enjoyed watching it,” Jaymin said. “It’s not enough. She has to be prosecuted and brought to justice. All of them… They are just arrogant.”

Left to right: Kanesh, Jaymin and Jayshree Patel were postmasters at Whetstone Post Office, while cousin Taru Patel sometimes helped out with the running of the business (Image: Charles Thomson)

The rally was organised by former customers in Whetstone after ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office told the true story of how postmasters were prosecuted because computers wrongly said money was missing.

“I was so emotional, I have been re-watching it every day,” Jaymin said of the show.

Contacted by concerned former customers after it aired, the Patels admitted they had retired under a cloud in 2019 and spent years seeking compensation.

They avoided prosecution because they obeyed their contract, which required them to personally cover any shortfalls – but doing so left them substantially out of pocket, they claim.

Jaymin and Kanesh said they even stopped paying into their private pensions because they could no longer afford them, so their whole retirements have been affected.

“They are so humble, they didn’t say a word to anyone,” said Hannah Larkin, who organised last week’s rally. “If it wasn’t for the drama, we still wouldn’t have known.”

Hannah Larkin, in red, poses with former postmaster Jaymin Patel. Hannah organised the rally after ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office led to the Patels' dispute with the Post Office becoming public knowledge (Image: Charles Thomson)

Kanesh claimed the family told the Post Office its Horizon IT system was faulty soon after it was installed in the early 2000s.

They began running a Post Office near the Barnet Odeon in 1977, then opened another in their High Road newsagent business in 1992.

He said they never incurred significant shortfalls – until Horizon came in.

“Sometimes it was £500, £600, even £1,000 (a week),” said Kanesh.

“We just couldn’t make out what was going on,” said Jaymin. “We told them, ‘It could be your system’. But nothing was done. Nothing at all.”

“We used our own money,” claimed Kanesh. “Our mother had to help us. We were continuously in overdraft. We had to take money from the shop to pay the Post Office.

“If you rang the helpline they would come out with statements like, ‘You’re the first one, it hasn’t happened to anyone else’.

“The auditors would come and take the employees and question them separately, pressuring them, saying, ‘Look, if you admit it [stealing], we can sort it out’. It was a very bullying atmosphere.”

Jaymin and Kanesh Patel said they both spent so much money covering fictitious shortfalls caused by the Post Office's Horizon IT system that they had to stop paying into their private pensions, affecting their whole retirements (Image: Charles Thomson)

Outside their former shop last week, a constant stream of well-wishers embraced them and offered words of support.

“I wish we’d known,” said one lady. “We would have supported you. If only we’d known at the time, we would have tried to do something like Jo Hamilton’s neighbours did.”

Mrs Hamilton, played on ITV by BAFTA-winner Monica Dolan, was wrongly convicted of false accounting but her Hampshire community supported her in court.

“This is what gives us the strength,” Kanesh said at the rally. “As you can see, the community are like a family – everyone knows us.

“We knew four generations, from the great grandparents to the current generation. We used to do the passports. We took the photos. We knew everyone by first name.”

“We are proud of what we did for the community,” said Jaymin.

The Patels pose with just some of the well-wishers who turned out to support them outside their former Post Office in Whetstone, Barnet, last week (Image: Charles Thomson)

The Post Office would not comment specifically on the Patels’ case, but said it was “acutely aware of the human cost of the scandal” and was “doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past, as far as that is possible”.

“Both the Post Office and government are committed to providing full, fair and final compensation for the people affected,” a spokesperson said.

“To date, offers of around £138 million have been made to around 2,700 postmasters, the majority of which have been agreed and paid.

"Interim payments continue to be made in other cases which have not yet been resolved.”